Marley Desinord spins her records on the turntable, cranks up the volume and lets the music soar.
She dances. She twists. She finger-punches the air to the beat.
Her iPhone records the moment for a video that she will share with friends, classmates and her 111,000 TikTok followers.
Marley has been showcasing her DJ skills on social media since she was 8. Now, at age 13, it’s more than her TikTok career that is in danger of ending prematurely because of a proposed Florida state law that would ban her from the digital platform that put her on the map.
She and a whole generation of kids her age who chat, snap and stream on social media would be cut off from a huge part of their lives.
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Under legislation known as HB1 and SB 1788, social media platforms would prohibit Florida minors from creating new accounts, terminate existing accounts of those younger than 16 and use age verification for account holders, without a parental permission exemption.
The move is Florida legislators’ latest battlefront in an all out culture war that is seen as a bellwether for the rest of the country. Spurred by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state has led the charge in passing book bans, limiting the use of public funds for diversity initiatives and restricting the discussion of sex and gender identity in schools.
One of the bill’s sponsors, Fiona McFarland, a Republican, has said this…
